Alan provides background about the 1st ICs- Small Scale Integrated (SSI) circuits – and their lack of noise immunity as a potential problem. Bernie says Fairchild stimulated demand for SSIs by drastically cutting the price. David reaffirms that fact, while calling attention to unreliable plastic packages that had just come out. Ed chimes in that in the transistor era, there were 2 types of plastic packages. One of the attributes of the planar transistor (invented by Jean Horne) is that over time it facilitated significant improvements in the manufacturing, assemble and tests of ICs, Ed said.

Summary: The panel discusses the early pricing and associated packaging of early SSI (small-scale integrated) circuits. Prices dropped from $120 per circuit to $1 per circuit as packaging went from ceramic to plastic.

[Thanks to Alan Weissberger and Tom Gardner for the above description.]